New York City Department of Education

[Pages:48]Office of the New York State Comptroller Division of State Government Accountability

New York City Department of Education

Accuracy of Reported Discharge Data

Report 2009-N-9

Thomas P. DiNapoli

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Table of Contents

Page

Authority Letter.......................................................................................................................... 5

Executive Summary.................................................................................................................... 7

Introduction................................................................................................................................ 9 Background........................................................................................................................... 9 Audit Scope and Methodology.......................................................................................... 11 Authority............................................................................................................................. 12 Reporting Requirements................................................................................................... 12 Contributors to the Report................................................................................................ 12

Audit Findings and Recommendations................................................................................. 13 General Education Cohort................................................................................................ 13 Special Education Cohort.................................................................................................. 15 Recommendations.............................................................................................................. 16

Agency Comments................................................................................................................... 19

State Comptroller's Comments............................................................................................... 45

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Authority Letter

State of New York Office of the State Comptroller

Division of State Government Accountability March 29, 2011

Ms. Cathleen Black Chancellor New York City Department of Education 52 Chambers Street New York, NY 10007

Dear Chancellor Black:

The Office of the State Comptroller is committed to helping State agencies, public authorities and local government agencies manage government resources efficiently and effectively and, by so doing, providing accountability for tax dollars spent to support government operations. The Comptroller oversees the fiscal affairs of State agencies, public authorities and local government agencies, as well as their compliance with relevant statutes and their observance of good business practices. This fiscal oversight is accomplished, in part, through our audits, which identify opportunities for improving operations. Audits can also identify strategies for reducing costs and strengthening controls that are intended to safeguard assets.

Following is a report of our audit of the New York City Department of Education: Accuracy of Reported Discharge Data. This audit was performed pursuant to the State Comptroller's authority as set forth in Article V, Section 1 of the State Constitution and Article III, Section 33 of the General Municipal Law.

This audit's results and recommendations are resources for you to use in effectively managing your operations and in meeting the expectations of taxpayers. If you have any questions about this report, please feel free to contact us.

Respectfully submitted,

Office of the State Comptroller Division of State Government Accountability

Division of State Government Accountability

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Executive Summary

State of New York Office of the State Comptroller

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Audit Objective

Students are said to be "discharged" from high school when they transfer to another school or another authorized educational program, leave the country, or die. The objective of our audit was to determine whether the New York City Department of Education (DoE) has accurately reported the number of students discharged from City public high schools, in accordance with the guidelines of the New York State Education Department (SED).

Audit Results - Summary

High school graduation and dropout rates are publicly reported, and are generally regarded as important indicators of a school's effectiveness. If these rates are to be accurate, they must be calculated correctly. In particular, students who drop out of school must be properly distinguished from students who are discharged, because discharged students are not counted when a school's graduation or dropout rates are calculated. In accordance with SED guidelines, students who leave school without required documentation to support a discharge must be reported as dropouts. We consider reported rates that are within 5 percent of our audited rate to be generally accurate.

We found that the DoE is classifying some students as discharged without sufficient documentation under SED guidelines to support a discharge classification. Specifically, when we examined DoE's discharge classifications for its 2004-08 general education cohort (i.e., the students who entered ninth grade in 2004 and were expected to graduate four years later in 2008), we found that 74 of the 500 (14.8 percent) randomly selected students who were classified as discharged were not supported with required documentation, and all 74 therefore should have been classified as dropouts. This caused DoE's reported graduation rate to be higher than the actual and the dropout rate to be lower than actual.

When we statistically projected the results of our sample to the entire cohort, we found that the correct graduation rate for the cohort was probably between 62.9 and 63.6 percent, rather than the 65.5 percent reported by DoE, and the correct dropout rate was probably between 15.5 and 16.5 percent, rather than the 13.0 percent reported by DoE. At some individual high schools, the correct graduation rates could be lower, and the correct dropout rates higher, than was reported by DoE. As the recalculated graduation rate for the general education cohort was

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within 5 percentage points of the reported rate, we consider the reported rate to be generally accurate.

We also examined DoE's discharge classifications for its 2004-08 special education cohort (i.e., certain ungraded students in self-contained special education classes) and identified similar errors. Specifically, when we examined DoE's discharge classifications for its 2004-08 special education cohort, we found that 20 of the 100 (20 percent) randomly selected students were classified as discharged without the required supporting documentation, and all 20 therefore should have been classified as dropouts. As a result, the correct graduation rate for this cohort was probably between 8.9 and 9.3 percent, rather than the 9.7 percent reported by DoE, and the correct dropout rate was probably between 20.6 and 23.8 percent, rather than the 17.2 percent reported by DoE. As the recalculated graduation rate for the special education cohort was within 5 percentage points of the reported rate, we consider the reported rate to be generally accurate. Moreover, the error rates we identified would not negate the upward trends in graduation rates that the DoE has reported in recent years.

We determined that, generally, DoE was misclassifying some students as discharged because its classification and documentation guidelines were not consistent with SED's guidelines, DoE staff were not always familiar with the classification guidelines, and DoE did not have an adequate quality control procedure for verifying that its discharge classifications are correct.

Our report contains three recommendations for improving the accuracy of DoE's reported discharge data. DoE officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they have taken action or will be taking action to implement them. Most notably, DoE's guidelines were amended before the 2009-10 school year to better align with SED's guidelines on required documentation to support a discharge classification.

This report, dated March 29, 2011, is available on our website at: . Add or update your mailing list address by contacting us at (518) 474-3271 or Office of the State Comptroller Division of State Government Accountability 110 State Street, 11th Floor Albany, NY 12236

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Office of the New York State Comptroller

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